


Better

by RHGroeninga



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: After the Agni Kai, Be Careful What You Wish For, Creepy, Dark Spirit, Gen, Non-human POV, Spirit POV, Spirits, Time Spirit, Zuko's Past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:15:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23595949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RHGroeninga/pseuds/RHGroeninga
Summary: Uncle once told Zuko that when an offer sounds too good to be true, there usually is a catch. But what if there were a way to just make everything... better? (Mainly rated mature for sheer creepiness and mature themes.)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 26





	Better

“  
_All mine, all mine, we’re the spirits of time,  
On your flesh we dine, your blood is fine wine,  
Though do not be afraid, you wouldn’t mind,  
For it’s only after we send you far back in_ _to_ _time…_  
”

Inuko hummed along with the words repeating in his head. The sky was dark that night, heavy with thick clouds as the wind blew restlessly across the water, creating choppy waves, and along the trees, pulling on leaves and branches and threatening to pluck them from the trunk and land them on someone’s head. Storm was coming that night. Men did not see the lightening, but the thunder rumbled from behind the mountain tops.

Though the sky was dark, the ground was darker as those menacingly rustling trees cast impenetrable shadows on the land beneath them, and it was from this darkness that creatures such as Inuko appeared.

“  
_Time, oh, time,  
Once you were still mine,  
Oh, it is a crime!  
How you left me, crust in grime,  
Quietly slipped away,  
But I was here to stay,  
So now you are all mine,  
And I have all time,  
to think up a new rhyme…_  
”

I nuko and his brothers were feared on the island of Hynai and the townspeople had left offerings of blood and sake on their doorsteps, but Inuko was only interested in the small, rusty vessel bobbing in the harbor,  the disquiet he sensed from it luring him from the shadows that birthed him at night. As he’d slipped from the darkened streets onto the quail, he stretched his form until he was tall enough to grab onto the railing of the deck while his feet were still standing on the wooden platform below.  He shrunk again to human size while holding onto the railing, sliding onto the deck as smoothly and silently as only a spirit truly could.

A guard came around the corner, the fire in his hand casting a warm glow onto the shadow where Inuko just landed. It was abandoned, as it always was at night. The guard turned around, continuing his rounds.

Inuko sunk below the deck and ghosted through the halls, following the trail. Other, delightful, thoughts and memories wafted from the men’s sleeping quarters left and right: a wife with three small children who ordered her husband to return soon from the navy – that was fourteen years ago. A dear friend whose skull was crushed to splinters, eyes popped inside the carcasses and brains having escaped the pressure from the top. Miko hadn’t known before brains were quite so gushy and quite so gray. Men in the dark with teethed clubs and wolf-helmets leaving cut throats and pierced lungs in their wake; Hanatu had only survived by being left for dead after having been clubbed in the head.

Inuko stopped for a moment when he sensed an enormous sense of loss and guilt, only kept a-bay by endless wisdom and experience. It was tempting – more tempting even than his intended victim… how much he could change, how much grief and horror he could cause be granting one simple, primal wish… But the old dragon wouldn’t fall for it – Inuko could already feel the man stirring at his presence, and decided to make haste towards the easier and ultimately almost as rewarding prey before he could be cast from this ship.

Their it was. Dreams of fire. Smelling burnt flesh. Half of his sight veiled in darkness, probably forever.

Worthless. A stain on the family honor. Weak. Soft. Lacking.

A leader who would stop a war without end, whose legacy would outshine that of his ancestors and who would live forever in the hearts of his loyal subjects, while Ozai would slowly rot away, mostly forgotten by history but as the cruel, heartless father who’d permanently marked the face of his own first-born son for bravely standing up for the well-being of his people.

But Zuko foresaw none of that – certainly not now, when the rediscovery of the Avatar was still years away. For all he knew he’d stay blind forever, traveling hostile lands searching for a ghost that most believed had abandoned this earth for good. Unloved by his father, not seeing the love of his uncle. Fearing he’d die here, disgraced and alone.

“  
_All mine, all mine,_  
Boy, would you wish to live in another time?  
”

The boy groaned. Sharp hearing, this one, and better survival instinct.

At once he was wide awake, his unbandaged eye peering uselessly in pitch black darkness.

“Show yourself, or you will wind up as Rinsu!” The thirteen year old managed to hide the quiver in his voice quite well, but Inuko could hear the real message directly from the boy’s mind. ‘ _I won’t hesitate to kill you if you try to hurt me – as I did to Rinsu – but I can still hear the screaming and the cursing when I threw a fireball into Rinsu’s stomach, still smell the sickening smell of flesh and skin and hairs and clothes burning – so like the time my father set my face on fire, still feel the snap of Rinsu’s neck beneath my hands._ ’ But if someone touched the boy, they would still find their bones broken, their meat singed and their throat stabbed through with the beautiful pearl dagger the boy kept hidden under his pillow, because no matter how it burdened his mind, this kid was programmed to kill. And kill he would, but not today.

“Do not fear, my child, for I am not here to hurt you. In fact I am here to grant you all your wishes and make them come true.” And that was the truth, for Inuko and his brothers did never lie.

The boy’s one bright-gold eye widened even further as he heard the melodic voice but he still saw nothing. “Are – are you a spirit?” he asked fearfully.

“Yes.” Inuko answered, and finally showed the young prince his true form. The boy gasped as an elongated, ethereal form appeared in front of him. Inuko knew he was quite the sight for those who’d never met a spirit before, even though his appearance was quite tame compared to many others of his kind. Most of his being existed out of the blackest shadows which created a tall, thin, almost skeletal humanoid form clothed in tattered rags and with long, wild black hairs surrounding a bald crown. His head and hands were white as dead – contrasting with his black figure – and his eyes were out of proportion and bulbous as those of an insect, and shone a mesmerizing shade of azure.

“My name is Inuko, and I am a spirit of time. I can turn back time and change your fate, in such a way that all that you desire now is reality.”

The boy swallowed nervously, disconcerted by his gaunt appearance. “How can I trust you?”

“Spirits do not lie.” he spoke truthfully, “Weigh my words carefully in your heart, and you will be able to tell make-believe from reality.”

‘ _Why say he speak_ _s_ _the truth but I need to weigh his words anyway? That makes no sense!_ ’ the boy thought confusedly, ‘ _Ugh, it’s just like listening to Uncle’s proverbs._ _O_ _nly much creepier._ ’

“You may ask about your future if you want, then you can decide whether you wish to change the past.”

“My future…” Zuko was quiet for a while, trying to come up with a smart question about his future. Only his future was bleak and he did not know what to ask.

Finally he looked up from his lap, shyly asking about the thing he felt most insecure about. “What will I look like in the future?”

In response Inuko’s features shifted, his body became less slender and less black, hair grew on top of his head while in other places it shrunk until all of it was equally short and spiky and his rags became a monotonous greenish-brown like those of a beggar in the Earth Kingdom. But he might as well have shown up in royal robes and a golden crown on his topknot, the young Zuko only had eye for the horrific scar deforming a third of his face.

‘ _That spirit looked terrifying, but I’ll look even worse._ ’ the young prince thought in despair. A single tear leaked from his eye and he quietly sobbed. “I’m a monster…”

“You do not need to be.” Inuko said gently in the teenage Zuko’s voice as he knelt down to get on the younger Zuko’s eye-height. “I can make a world for you where you still live in the palace, where you never spoke up during a war-meeting, where you father never banished you, never was angry with you. I can even make a world where your father loves you, where your mother is still there and where even Azula likes you and looks up to you as her brother. And I promise you, not only you but all of them will be happier for it, they will love each other and be loved.”

Inuko knew the boy was listening closely to what he offered, even though he was looking the other way. “Your family will be whole again, and it will never have been broken to begin with. You will be happier than you ever will be in this life, and so will your family.”

“What will happen to them? My family?” Inuko purred quietly with glee, this was exactly what he’d hoped the boy would ask.

“Your mother is still alive, but she’ll have forgotten your face.” Zuko looked at him in shock at this little fact, and Inuko delighted in telling more. “She will remember you again, but then she will tell you she chose to leave you behind and instead start a family with her true lover. She’s always hated your father and she’s been imperative in the murder of your grandfather and she was more than glad to leave Ozai and her two children forgotten.” Tears sprang in Zuko’s eye and he shook his head in denial, but Inuko knew the kid believed his hurtful words. “She has another husband and two other children by the time you see her again, and she will never feel entirely comfortable around you or Azula again.”

“And Azula? What will happen to her?”

“Ah, Azula. She will end up in a nuthouse by the time she is fifteen.”

Zuko looked at him with a single disbelieving eye. “What?! That’s horrible! That’s impossible! She’s so much better than me, she’s perfect in everything…”

“Yet she is not loved, and that pressure will destroy her.”

Suddenly Zuko became surly and crossed his arms. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Father loves her. She’s his perfect heir, he loves her more than anything.”

“And yet he does not love her, because your father cannot love.”

“What do you mean father _cannot love_?!”

“He is incapable of love. He does not love you, he did not love your mother and he does not love Azula.”

“But if I capture the Avatar…” Zuko started desperately.

“He still will not love you.”

“But then, how can I ever…” Inuko put a comforting hand on Zuko’s shoulder as fat tears rolled from one of his eyes. The other would never cry again.

“I can help you.” Inuko reminded him again. “I can recreate reality and make your father love you, no matter how much you struggle and how much you fail. I will make a reality where Azula retains her sanity and you two will remain as close as you were before she started firebending, and where your mother loves and is loved by your father, unconditionally, and where your family is still whole and loving. I can do that, you only need to ask.”

Zuko stared at the older, eternally scarred version of himself for a moment, remembering he was supposed to be a strong, unflappable prince and trying to hide his tears with his sleeve. “What’s the catch?” He finally asked the spirit, because this was too good to be true.

“You won’t remember anything of me or your old life but for some flashes in dreams, and others whose lives are changed might have those flashes as well. Neither can I promise that you and your family will never be pried apart, never be hurt or never will die, or that you will never be scarred. I can however promise that at the time I will sent you to all of them will be alive, present and healthy, and that everyone in your family will love each other unconditionally. Also, I can promise that you and your family will be happier than any of you will ever be in your current lives.”

“So I will be home?” Zuko asked in a small voice.

“Yes.”

“And mother will be there?”

“Yes.”

“And father…” he choked, the idea he wished for this almost impossible to admit to the powerful spirit, yet this was perhaps the most important question of all. “Father will love me?”

“Yes.”

“Then – then do it! I – I ask you to change time and make my wishes come true!”

Inuko grinned, and though he still wore an older Zuko’s face his teeth were sharp and pointy and his eyes started glowing blue. “And as you wish, it will be!” And as this world ceased to exist, another timeline was created…


End file.
